McLaren F1 tester Oliver Turvey rejoins Jota for Le Mans 24 Hours
McLaren Formula 1 development driver Oliver Turvey will return to the Jota Sport squad for the Le Mans 24 Hours in an attempt to repeat his 2014 LMP2 class victory
He will make his third consecutive appearance in the blue-riband WEC event with Jota, driving alongside team regular Simon Dolan and Le Mans debutant Mitch Evans aboard its revised and renamed Gibson-Nissan 015S.
The 28-year-old Briton has been brought back into the Jota line-up for a second time after a deal for Nick Yelloly to race for the team in both the 24 Hours and the European Le Mans Series fell through.
Turvey raced for the team in 2013, but left to take up an offer to race in the World Endurance Championship with the Delta/ADR-run Millennium squad, which had to abandon its campaign for financial reasons.
He was then brought back for Le Mans to drive with Dolan and Harry Tincknell during the week of the race after Audi reserve driver Marc Gene was called up to replace Loic Duval, who was ruled out of the event after crashing in free practice.
Turvey, who is racing for the Dome Honda GT500 team in Super GT in Japan this year, said: "I am delighted to be returning to Le Mans with Jota Sport and to be able to defend our LMP2 win from last year."
He will get his first taste of Jota's updated chassis at the Le Mans test day on May 31.
"I have heard positive feedback on the Gibson chassis for this year and can't wait to get into the car at the test day," he continued.
"I will be my only opportunity to test ahead of the race week, but then that'll be more than I had last year."
Jota boss Sam Hignett, whose squad won P2 in last weekend's Spa round of the WEC with Dolan and Tincknell, said: "Oliver showed his true quality last year with his performance following a 48-hour call-up; this year we have given him two months to prepare, so we are expecting spectacular things!"
DID YOU KNOW...
... Turvey will be racing the same chassis at Le Mans in which he has competed in each of the past two years?
Jota Sport has used the same Zytek 07S/Z11SN monocoque — chassis #9 — in all but one event since it joined the LMP2 arena in 2012.
It built up its car around a replacement tub for last season, but the monocoque was destroyed when Dolan crashed in the ELMS opener at Silverstone.
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